Solbrig's first successful flight
Solbrig flying before a crowd
Solbrig on ground in plane
Solbrig and team
Cargo Airplane
Airplane Transporting Cargo, 2004
Labor Day Air Show
Commercial Airplane, 2004
Early AirplanesWilliam C. Robinson: A Pioneer in the Air
Early aeroplanes were crude and often unreliable. Flying was dangerous, but many saw the air as a new American frontier. These pioneers of the air were willing to take the chance. Out of their adventures and inventions the science of aviation was born.
A Better Engine
One of the pioneers of the air was
an Iowan named William Robinson. This plane builder and flier wanted to break
an altitude record. But fate intervened.
"Robinson's American Cross-Country Record," the title announced.
The first article in Area and Hydro magazine for October 31, 1914,
told all about William C. Robinson's record-breaking flight. The young man
from Grinnell had made the flight in his home-built "parasol" monoplane
with a radial motor of his own design. His speed had been around 80 miles
per hour. Robinson had flown from Des Moines to Kentland, Indiana— 370
miles in 4 hours and 44 minutes.
Billy Robinson lived in Grinnell, Iowa, where he built an aeroplane and then
took flying lessons. He spent two years flying for exhibition and competition.
But his greatest ambition was to design and build flying machines and better
engines.
He returned to Grinnell where he
started an aeroplane company. He built a biplane with his special radial engine
to power it. Robinson believed that with this aeroplane he could break an
altitude record.
The record was over 20,000 feet at the time, and Robinson had already been
up to 14,000 feet. He was sure he could break the record.
On a chilly gray afternoon in March 1916 the people of Grinnell gazed toward
the sky as the Robinson aeroplane worked its way upward. The plane became
only a speck in the sky and people began to think the record was surely broken.
But then, the plane turned toward the earth, fluttering like a leaf in an
uncontrollable fall. There was a terrible crash and explosion as the plane
plunged into a farm field. That was the end for Billy Robinson and his magnificent
flying machine, but his contribution to aeroplane engine design remained.
